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Tuesday, 8 December 2015

NJ Advent Calendar - Jazz North (December 8th)

When we talk about the Northern Jazz scene, it's easy to forget quite how big an area that covers. From Hadrians Wall to the Midlands, that's us. That covers cities like Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, rural areas and everything in between. Tasked with looking after all of this is Jazz North, the jazz development agency for the North and behind our door number 8.

Jazz North grew out of the previous regional organisations - Jazz Yorkshire, Jazz North West and Jazz North East. Starting off on project funding, the organisation has now become an NPO (in other words, a regularly funded organisation with the stability that comes with that) and recently appointed Lesley Jackson as the new Executive Director. To date, the organisation run/have run the following schemes -

Northern Line - the flagship scheme which supports 12 bands per season, offering them to promoters at subsidy and providing support in marketing and mentoring.

Jazz North Introduces - A mentoring scheme for young musicians, this project offers high profile festival performances to musicians aged between 16 and 25.

Jazz North Originals - This commissioning scheme is modeled on MJF's own commission project. Their first commission went to composer Rodrigo Constanzo.

CPD - There are a number of professional development events held for musicians including advice on funding, self-promotion and digital media. There is also a specialist strand called Making The Changes for young musicians ready to study jazz or start gigging professionally.Education Conference and Networking - Each year, Jazz North holds a day long conference on jazz education, bringing together educators from across the region and nationally recognised speakers.